Colorado State University School of Global Environmental Sustainability Offers Series Highlighting Sustainability Centers Across Campus

The School of Global Environmental Sustainability is hosting a series of events this fall designed to introduce the campus to sustainability centers at Colorado State.

Sustainability centers that will be part of the In-Focus Sustainability Centers Series include the Integrated Water Atmosphere and Ecosystem Education and Research; the Colorado Climate Center; the Institute for Society, Landscape, and Ecosystem Change; and the Colorado Water Institute.

Events take place from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 108 of Johnson Hall. Each presentation will consist of a short introduction session with time for Q&A. Light refreshments will be provided. Seating is limited.

“With such a broad variety of centers addressing aspects of sustainability science at CSU, we thought this series would be a good way to learn more about the centers, and how to be involved,” said Diana Wall, director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, which is known as SoGES. “We hope this series helps the centers see areas of integration, and catalyzes new approaches and ideas for faculty interaction.”

The schedule:

Sept. 27 – I-WATER features problem-focused research to bridge basic and applied science by combining fundamental research on scientific problems with application of scientific knowledge to actual resource issues. Presenters: Jorge Ramirez, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Oct. 11 – The Colorado Climate Center was established to provide information and expertise on Colorado’s complex climate. Through its threefold program of Climate Monitoring (data acquisition, analysis, and archiving), Climate Research and Climate Services, the Center is responding to many climate related questions and problems affecting the state today. Presenters: Nolan Doesken, Atmospheric Science

Nov. 8 – The Institute for Society, Landscape, and Ecosystem Change provides a forum through which local people, scientists, policy makers and the interested public can address this seminal question. Presenters: Kathy Galvin, Anthropology

Nov. 29 – The Colorado Water Institute, an affiliate of Colorado State University, exists for the express purpose of focusing the water expertise of higher education on the evolving water concerns and problems being faced by Colorado citizens. Presenters: Reagan Waskom, Agriculture, Water Conservation

The first presentation on Sept. 13 featured the IGERT Program in Multidisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Bioenergy is a NSF-funded graduate program that aims to educate a new generation of scientists that have interdisciplinary training across several areas relevant to sustainable bioenergy. Also highlighted was the Sustainable BioEnergy Development Center, which serves as a clearinghouse for bioenergy research including supporting three new bioenergy faculty as well as providing funding for equipment purchases and travel grants.

CSU’s sustainability centers have sponsored projects such as:

• Research towards sustainable land architecture in southern Yucatan;

• The relationship of the North American monsoon to tropical and North Pacific sea surface temperatures as revealed by observational analyses;

• Collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries and requires teamwork in order to provide students with the tools to become leaders in the science and engineering field);

• The development of new techniques to allow for the adaptive utilization of diverse fuels in internal combustion engines as biofuel technology continues to grow;

• Continuing work on a framework for the expansion of data analysis protocols for groundwater quality monitoring; and

• Developing models to ‘optimize’ ecosystem resilience and human economic activity that bear on the hydrologic cycle at regional scales.

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